10 - CAPTURE
After enjoying this situation for some time the master arrived on an old horse - the most pitiful old plug I have ever saw in my whole lifetime, and the master was about as old and useless appearing as the old plug. The young dogs were trying to climb the tree when he came upon the scene '"What you doing up there?" he asked in a husky and shaky voice. "Why I'm trying to keep away from your hounds, of course" I said, quite out of patience with his question. I was gasping for breath and my heart was beating wildly, caused mostly by the awful run. "Well come down here" he drawled. "I will when you take your dogs away" I promptly said.
He had quite a formidable looking shotgun slung over his shoulders. He up'd the pups together, and while the old hound obediently stayed by the old horse, the old fellow proceeded to question me quite fully. I told him that in some way I got lost from my regiment and was now trying to find my way back to it. But it did not require the eyes of an experienced person to see that the time had been quite considerable since I had been with a regiment of soldiers. The stamp of prison fare was too plainly upon me to deceive the old fellow by such a story. He ordered me to return to the road I had just came on, while he and the hounds followed at an unsafe distance. "Now mind if you make a move, to get away, or refuse to go along, the old hound and I will take a hold of you" he warned me quite sternly.
But never the less I immediately began to scheme to escape from this feeble old captor. The best possible scheme I could think of was to pretend to stumble, then when they came up, to grab the shotgun, and the rest would be easy. The attempt at this trick proved to be that the old hound was just as the old fellow had warned me. Instantly it was ready to spring upon me.
After this scheme failed, I tried another. I told him that I would give him that I would give him half of my farm in Illinois if he would give me my freedom. But he proved to be absolutely impossible at bribery. So gave up trying any other scheme to escape.
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LETTERS & DIARIES
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